Clinician of the Year

In association with the

This award acknowledges the importance of clinical engagement in financial management and in particular recognises a clinician who has taken financial responsibility for their services, led efficiency or improvement programmes or provided an example for other clinicians by engaging with the financial management agenda.

Winner Jason Leitch, NHS Scotland

Also shortlisted Elora Mukherjee, Ealing Hospital NHS Trust

Clinical edge
It is often said that clinicians must take a central role in any efficiency plan – not just because they take the decisions that affect how NHS funds are spent, but also to ensure opportunities are taken to maintain and improve the quality of care. Jason Leitch, the winner of this year’s Working With Finance – Clinician of the Year Award, is proof of that.
The award acknowledges the importance of clinical engagement in financial management, recognising a clinician who has taken financial responsibility for services, led efficiency or improvement programmes and set an example for other clinicians by engaging with the finance agenda. Mr Leitch, the Scottish government national clinical lead, has been integral to the development and implementation of NHS Scotland’s productivity and efficiency framework, particularly in the area of better clinical quality and reduced costs.
He leads several initiatives, most notably the Scottish Patient Safety Programme, designed to reduce inpatient hospital mortality by 15% by the end of 2012 – by the end of March there had been a 7% reduction. It has delivered direct and indirect cost savings from a number of improvements, including a 12% fall in length of stay in intensive care units, a 14% drop in intensive care mortality, and reductions in infections. A 62% reduction in ventilator-associated pneumonia also led to a saving of £1.2m a year across five intensive care units.
 Mr Leitch has been in the post since 2007, initially as national clinical lead for safety and improvement. But following the success of clinical safety initiatives and the publication of the NHS Scotland quality strategy in 2010, the scope of his work widened to encompass safe, effective and person-centred patient care (the three quality ambitions in the strategy).
While maintaining his practice one day a week as a consultant oral surgeon, he advises the Scottish government, engages with stakeholders and works with managers and clinicians. There has been interest in the Patient Safety Programme from Sweden, Norway and South Africa, and Mr Leitch is helping Denmark implement its own programme, based on the Scottish one.
He has led discussions with the health boards on translating reductions in waste and harm into cash savings. And he has encouraged finance directors and clinicians to work together, spending time with finance directors to examine linking quality and cost and championing the importance of finance to clinicians.
Mr Leitch was pleased that the work in Scotland between clinicians and finance staff to improve quality, reduce cost and increase efficiency had been recognised.
While acknowledging clinical and financial engagement was not easy, he believed managers and clinicians were pulling in the same direction.
‘I have never met a finance director who didn't care about pressure ulcers or infection,’ he said. ‘If you provide financial data to doctors and safety data to finance directors everybody is in the same place.’
John Matheson, Scottish government health directorate finance director, said: ‘On health board site visits, he will often tell clinicians to get financial expertise on their improvement team, thus enabling the dialogue to be improved, cash savings to be realised and all sides to learn to work together in partnership.’
The judges – who also praised the work of the other shortlisted candidate, Elora Mukherjee – said Mr Leitch’s work was ‘patient centred, delivering real improvements in both effectiveness and efficiency in the use of resources and improving the patient experience’.
‘There have been demonstrable improvements in productivity with a proven upscaleable path and an international application,’ they added. 
 

The Judges

Susan Bews, Treasurer, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

Jonathan Sheffield, Chief Executive, National Institute for Health Research – Clinical Research Network

Mark Knight, Chief Executive, HFMA

Andy McKeon, Managing Director – Healthcare, Audit Commission

Chris Calkin, Director of Finance / Deputy Chief Executive, University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust